


Affective Intelligence

by Irhaboggles



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Anthology, Artificial Intelligence, Hope, Luthor - Freeform, Maybe Spoilers, Musing, Philosophy, Possible Spoilers, Robot, Speculation, lena - Freeform, sci fi, season 5
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2020-12-27 20:23:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 22,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21124703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Irhaboggles/pseuds/Irhaboggles
Summary: Hope, both as a concept and an A.I., could be a very mysterious thing, but even more enigmatic was its paradoxical, contradictory, confused and confusing creator... (Anthology of musings about Lena's new A.I. friend, Hope).





	1. Bound to Fail

Lena watched Hope out of the corner of her eye. They were supposed to be studying Q Waves, but Lena was far too busy studying Hope to focus on her other project. As much as she loved her new young creation, an uncomfortable tension had since started up between the two of them, and it was impeding Lena's ability to focus on anything else. It was all one-sided, however, because the thing that had caused the tension was already but a fading, fleeting memory for Hope. For Lena, however, it was a burning question with a very disheartening potential answer… But what was it that Hope had done that had rendered Lena so uncomfortable? Well…

Just half an hour ago, the two had been discussing Q Waves and how they were supposed to be helping in Lena's big project.

"But if I try to augment the brain with the waves as of right now, I get a zombie effect!" the Luthor cried in frustration as she gestured to her screen.

"And you don't want a world of robots, you just want better people," Hope finished, giving Lena a sympathetic look. Lena's frustration melted almost immediately in response to Hope's soft, gentle, compassionate and understanding tone. It felt so indescribably good to find someone who understood. Even if that someone was only an A.I., the empathy was like pure mana from Heaven for Lena's tormented soul. She managed a grimace in return while Hope's face continued to shine with concern, an emotion of empathy and love.

But even better than the soft, gentle, consoling, understanding tone, there had been Hope's expression. The look. _That _look. So infinitely tender, caring and knowing. Her eyebrows knit closer together, eyes filled with empathy and pain. Her lips pursed together and she tilted her head. Everything in that one, short, little second… So much love and understanding… Lena almost hadn't believed it. It was one thing to hear Hope express her condolences verbally, but to finally get to see it on a human face was something else. So much emotion in one little look. So much love and tenderness. It honestly threw Lena for a loop and she could only stare back, taking a sharp inhale at just how human Hope really had become. Of course it was always Lena's intention to fill Hope with empathy, but to see just how good of a job she had really done was… stunning.

And then but a second later, Hope suddenly and impulsively leaned closer to Lena and hugged her. It was a somewhat awkward gesture, as Hope clearly still didn't quite understand hugging, but Lena was too caught up in the gesture itself to pay any mind to how good or bad it was. All she could do was stand there as Hope wrapped her arms around Lena and held her close, gentle and consoling. On reflex alone, Lena's arms started to raise up slowly to hug Hope back, but she stopped at the last second, her uncertainty and pain rendering her immobile again. All she could do was stand there in Hope's arms, feeling them wrapping around her body. It was a warm embrace, but it felt constricting and foreign to the Luthor.

Another second later, Lena pushed out of Hope's embrace and gave her a dark, wounded look before walking away without another sound. She couldn't think of what to do, or even to _say_. And after _that_ hug, Lena found herself incapable of even looking at Hope. This was not because she feared what she might see on Hope's face, but because she feared what Hope might see on _hers_. So she walked away and returned to her work, burying herself in the world of science once again, hoping to distract herself from the pain. But Hope was naive and persistent.

"I am sorry, Ms. Luthor," she apologized. Her words were sincere, but her tone was flat. It was a little dissonant, but that was exactly what Lena needed in order to wake herself back up. "It must be uncomfortable with me in this form for you to trust me," the loyal A.I. continued. That was when Lena finally looked her creation in the eye again.

Now the uncertainty and pain was gone, replaced by tenderness and sympathy. Hope might've been wearing the face of Eve Teschmacher, but because she did not have the backstabbing heart of Eve Teschmacher, Lena did not see Eve when she saw Hope. Lena had been able to write over that and even though, cognitively, she knew that Hope was currently residing within Eve's body, Lena was able to see Hope and not Eve. It was like imagining that Hope was Eve's twin, sure the two might've looked exactly alike, but they were not the same person at all so Lena was able to look at Hope with love and compassion where she might've looked at Eve with anger, hurt and hatred.

"I just don't trust people, Hope," Lena said gently. "I believed I could when I had friends, but they betrayed me like everyone else…"

30 minutes later, the pair had gone back to working in silence again, but while Hope flitted around the lab doing this and that, Lena could only stare after her with a sorrowful expression. Of course Lena had created Hope to be as human and humane as possible, but to see how Hope applied that coding in real life had been a bit jarring for the Luthor. Of course Lena was glad (from a scientific standpoint) that Hope had hugged her after she had shown signs of emotional distress, but underneath all of that, there were several things that bothered Lena.

The first was a bit egotistical. Lena was still unused to accepting affection. After all the hurt and betrayal she had gone through, she didn't like receiving affection for anyone. Even Hope, herself, had been on very formal terms with Lena despite Lena being something of a mother for her. So to be hugged by Hope, now, undid all of those formal boundaries and it made Lena feel uncomfortable somewhere deep inside. She didn't dislike Hope's hug because it reminded her of Eve. Lena disliked Hope's hug because it reminded her of all the other times she had been hugged and how every single person who had ever done so had eventually betrayed her in the end. Lena did not like receiving affection and that was exactly what Hope had just given to her.

But on a more scientific basis, even though Lena had created Hope expressly to think, learn and act like a human while also being kind, gentle, caring, peaceful, empathetic and moral, to see just how well and how fast Hope picked up on things and subsequently reacted to them was a bit intimidating. Lena had no doubt it was how Frankenstein must've felt when his creation finally came to life and started speaking! Of course, Hope was not exactly Frankenstein's monster, but there were parallels. It had only been a few weeks and Hope already had so much of Lena's temperament memorized. Lena couldn't tell if that flattered or unnerved her.

And another thing, Lena had created Hope expressly to be a prototype of what she wanted humanity to be from then on: creatures with a foundation built upon morality, empathy and logic. Hope was supposed to be the perfect human. She was supposed to be free of sinful passion and overwhelming emotion. And for the most part, she was. But that hug was starting to show Lena that maybe this level of emotional control wasn't as sturdy as she'd thought. After all, the hug had been spontaneous. Hope had seen Lena in pain, Hope had wanted to fix Lena's pain, so Hope had hugged Lena. That much was a logical and empathetic train of thought, but the impulsivity and passion with which she had gone to comfort Lena felt a bit _too_ human. Of course, Lena wasn't trying to totally erase human emotions (like she'd said, she didn't want a world of robots), but she _had_ hoped for a world where people were no longer controlled by their emotions, rather, that it went the other way around. And maybe Hope's impromptu hug seemed like a small thing to worry about in comparison to more heinous examples of crimes of passion (like murder, betrayal, active deceit or manipulation) but Lena worried nonetheless.

If Hope's impulsive hug had come from an overwhelming rush of empathy that she had temporarily been slave to, had Lena actually fixed anything at all? Weren't all crimes of passion things that stemmed from an overwhelming rush of emotion? Perhaps Hope's overwhelming rush had been good (motivated by empathy rather than selfishness or anger), but the underlying issue was the same. Even a flawless A.I. was susceptible to impulsive decisions decided upon during an emotionally-charged moment. That was the very thing Lena had been trying to stop, now even her own A.I. was doing it and it had only been a few weeks and she had been hand-designed by Lena to _not _behave that way. Hope was learning to love, and that was what frightened Lena. She was learning outside of her programming. That was to be expected, but seeing what Hope did with what she learned was what made Lena start to doubt herself.

But it wasn't even just Hope. Lena had lost herself to a moment of emotion as well. After Hope's impulsive hug, Lena had instinctively flinched away. She shut down first, panicking so much that she became immobilized. But then the second she felt able to move again, her first and immediate response had been to pull away. Instead of looking at things rationally, she had flinched away. Of course, she knew Hope wouldn't be offended, because she wasn't programmed to get upset easily, but Lena still felt a little bad at rebuffing her so swiftly and harshly. She hadn't really meant it, it was just such an automatic response for her. It was literally the opposite of what she wanted to do, and yet it had happened. Both of them had become slave to their emotions, and even if it was only a minor thing, the fact that it had happened at all was… unsettling.

"So what if it was always bound to fail?" Lena asked herself, feeling quite disheartened. "What if this whole mess had always been bound to fail from the start and I was only ever deluding myself into thinking I could fix humanity? What if I manage to recode people to be built upon love instead of hatred and they still wind up lashing out and allowing their vices to control them?" because of course, she knew she could always reboot Hope and start all over again, but what if Hope wound up in the same position she was in right now: being so kind and empathetic that those powerful emotions sometimes drove her to act out impulsively? Then Lena would be stuck in a loop of rebooting Hope every month or so and that wasn't what Lena wanted either. A species could not develop if it was constantly reset, but what if the growth remained unchecked…?

That was what Lena worried about most of all and as she and Hope continued to work in the lab, Hope still flitting around like a hummingbird while Lena watched her. Lena felt more and more as if her theory were proving true. Hope was becoming more and more human, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing, and it seemed like all the programming in the world would not be enough to ever truly erase her potential to become a creature bound by emotion and enslaved to passion.

Hope had started off with all the good qualities Lena wanted to humanity to have, but just through existing and learning and interacting, Hope was starting to display some of the traits Lena had wanted to erase from humanity. What did that say about where Lena's project was likely headed? Would she ever actually find a cure for humanity? Or were humans always destined to find their way back to the beginning again anyway? It was like trying to fly away from a black hole after crossing the event horizon. After you hit that terminal point, no matter which way you flew, you were always flying towards the singularity.

But Lena refused to take such a defeatist point of view and, acting as a slave to her emotions, she continued her feverish work of trying to fix humanity. While Hope remained as her faithful assistant, Lena led the way towards a future where humans never behaved selfishly ever again, all while remaining blind to the fact that her entire experiment was built upon very selfish ideals. She didn't like humanity, so she was going to fix it. What could be more egotistical? But Lena's faults were in her blind spot and on she worked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I find Lena's relationship with Hope to be really fascinating and this entire fic will just be speculations surrounding it. Feel free to add your own interpretation to things, I'm always up for a deep conversation about the nature of humanity. Let's do this! LOL.
> 
> (This first chapter is just musing about the hug and how it might symbolize that Lena's plan for "fixing" humanity may ultimately fail anyway).


	2. The Meaning of Hope

According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, the meaning of hope was as follows: to cherish and desire with anticipation; to want something to happen or be true. If one used that definition as _the _definition for hope, then it certainly made sense as to why Lena named her new A.I. assistant Hope. Hope was literally her hope. Hope was what Lena cherished, desired and anticipated. She wanted Hope to happen, and to be true. The more complicated question, then, was what exactly Lena meant by all that.

Well, for starters, Lena cherished her invention. She considered it like her child, although the creature called her "Ms. Luthor" and not "Mother". And as for desire? Well, Lena had desired for Hope to work. So far, things were looking good. Hope was functioning just as Lena intended for her to, so Lena's desire had been answered as well. But what did it mean for Lena to anticipate Hope? That got deeper into the reasons behind why Lena had created Hope at all.

On a surface level, Lena had created Hope to be an advisor, of sorts. Hope was her friend and confidante, someone for the Luthor to talk to and help keep her thoughts in track and in order. Being a Luthor was hard and busy work and she knew she could not do it alone. Hope was supposed to make everything easier. Better. More effective and enjoyable. Like any piece of modern technology, she was a convenience and luxury designed to make life better for her user. In this case, that was Lena.

But Lena didn't just create Hope for practical reasons like record-keeping and thought-sorting. Lena had also created Hope as a prototype for all of humanity. In light of Lena's most recent betrayal, the Luthor had come to the world with a new goal in mind: fixing all of humanity. It was her plan, her _hope_, that she could redesign the human race such that all of its old flaws, sins and vices would no longer exist. The way she saw it, the core of human weakness lay in unchecked emotions. She did not demonize emotions themselves, but rather, ones that got out of hand. She was referring to things like crimes of passion, or actions done with the intent to hurt, like deceit and manipulation. Those were crimes committed when a person became too interested in themselves over the good of others. They followed their emotions to benefit themselves even if it caused great harm to everyone else around them.

With this train of logic in mind, Lena had decided that unchecked emotions were the root of all evil. Every ill she could think of ultimately traced back to selfishness and greed, which led to violence, animosity and hatred. As such, she was looking for a way to rewrite humanity. She wanted people to be able to keep their minds, emotions and free wills, but she also wanted for everyone to be a bit calmer, gentler and more rational. If she could just rewire people to be a tad more considerate, the world could benefit a millionfold. She wasn't trying to turn the world into a zombie or robot wasteland, she just wanted everyone to be nicer, cliché and idealistic as it sounded.

But being a Luthor meant that Lena was coming from a very scientific lens. She likened her project to domestication. Wolves were savage and violent and had no issue attacking anything they saw as a threat, even fellow wolves. But then humans managed to win their trust over time and treat them well until it became a symbiotic relationship. The wolves lost their aggression and became gentler and more willing to cooperate. Many generations later, their very genetic codes had changed into what modern humans called "dogs". They were descended from feral creatures, but came out soft, gentle, loving and good. That was what Lena wanted to do with humanity. Trim the fangs and claws into teeth and nails. Dogs were still capable of thought and emotion, but they weren't nearly as hostile as their ancestors. That's what Lena wanted. Hope was just the first step.

Even though Lena didn't want a world of robots, the reason she had created Hope was to see if programming a gentler being was even possible at all. The reason Hope seemed so… perfect was because Lena had designed her as such. Hope was kind, gentle, caring, wise and intelligent. Lena had programmed her to essentially be human. She could think, talk and act just like any normal person. But at the same time, Lena muted any and all desire for violence, harm or deceit. Hope could not fathom those three sins, nor could she fathom why anyone would commit them. _That _was what Lena wanted the rest of humanity to be like. Hope was new humanity's prototype. She was the first in a long line of flesh-and-blood descendants who would be just like her. And this was where the name came into play again.

In Lena's mind, her A.I. was literally humanity's hope. It was also a hope of and for humanity. The way Lena saw it, her creation was not a device meant to put down other humans, but rather, to show what she believed humanity could be like under the most optimal conditions. So Hope was humanity's last hope in a number of sense. She was a physical representation of a hope for a better humanity. She was humanity's last hope if they wanted to turn their crappy world around before it was too late. She was Lena's faith in and for humanity. She was a symbol and a desire for humans to rise above their sinful nature and be better than that.

It was funny, Lena never considered herself a religious person, but there were an awful lot of religious themes within her life and work, especially now of late that she was trying to rebuild humanity. Wasn't that the very story of creation? And in fact, it became even funnier when one realized where Hope currently was. Lena had since given her over to Miss Teschmacher, allowing the A.I. to take total control of Teschmacher's mind and body so that she could have a more mobile form than what she used to be: an hourglass-shaped nanite device. But that meant Hope, the first in a long line of flesh-and-blood descendants who would be just like her, was currently residing in a human named Eve. The first woman. It was a bit of accidental irony, but Lena enjoyed it. This Eve had no Adam, but she did not need one. This Eve only needed God, and that was Lena.

But there was one deeper reason for Hope's inception, and her name. It was the one reason Lena refused to even acknowledge, and it was very closely related to Eve. Not the Biblical first woman, but the actual Eve Teschmacher whom Lena had once loved so dearly. The third reason for Hope's inception was companionship. Lena was lonely and in desperate need of a friend. Even if she claimed to be a lone wolf who no longer needed validation from anyone or anything, the truth was that she was desperately and deeply lonely. She needed companionship, someone to talk to and love… and who could talk to and love her in return. That was what Hope really was for: everything Lena lacked, particularly in the emotional department. Hope was for emotional support just as much as she was for physical and mental support.

But again, Lena would never admit to this, far too prideful to confess to being lonely. She wanted to consider herself above human needs and desires, and that included the desire for friendship and validation. She wanted to consider herself beyond the need for attention and affection, but at the end of the day, that was the biggest lie of all. If Lena really was so independent, she wouldn't have needed Hope. Or at least, she wouldn't have needed Hope to be so humanlike. But the fact that she did make Hope so very human was a huge red flag that, underneath her cold exterior, Lena wanted to love and be loved again and with no human candidates proving themselves worthy, Lena had turned to technology. It was a sad and dangerous game to play, turning a lifeless piece of technology into emotional support, but Lena was more than willing to play. The way she saw it, no human was worth befriending. Not as long as the possibility of falling into sin remained. So she had turned to a more flawless companion, one who could not fathom violence or deceit. She literally gave herself Hope and built an ideal friend from the ground up.

So, Hope wasn't just humanity's hope, she was Lena's hope as well. She was Lena's last hope in just about everything. If anything were to happen to Hope, it would crush Lena because this Hope was Lena's very last. It was a lot to put on one simple A.I., but the loneliness inside Lena's soul was blinding her and making her desperate, even to the point of creating friends to fill the void that her old friends had left behind.

It was also why Lena had chosen for Hope to overtake Eve, of all people. Instead of just building Hope a body, or finding some random mook or some other enemy of hers, Lena had chosen Eve specifically. Part of this was done out of vengeance for what Eve had done to her, and part of it was done because she really did need Eve's mind to help her complete her project (because as much as Lena hated to admit it, the smartest person she'd ever met outside of the Luthor name was definitely Eve Teschmacher), but part of it was also done out of loneliness and pain. She really had cared for Eve, deeply and truly, which was part of the reason why Eve's betrayal had cut her so deep. Then when the time came that Lena managed to muster up enough excuses to call upon Eve again, she had wasted no time in hiring out a hit on the girl and having her kidnapped and brought to the L-Corp labs without further hesitation.

Naturally, Eve had protested, insisting that Lena had the story all wrong, but Lena hadn't believed a word of it. Despite their hostile reunion, however, a tiny, tiny part of Lena felt glad to see a familiar face again and, even more than that, she had felt _hopeful_. She knew what she was about to do to Eve. She knew she was about to override the girl's mind and body and replace her with Hope. Perhaps that sounded like a cruel thing to do, synonymous with murder, but Lena had been convinced that if she could do this right, she could remove the parts of Eve that were so undesirable (her habit of eavesdropping, lying and murdering) and make her back into the sweet young woman whom Lena had grown to love so dearly in the past. If she could cut out all the bad parts about Eve, she would have nothing left but the good girl who used to work in the lab with her before. That's what Lena really wanted to do, and she had said as such.

"It won't hurt. I just need to target the parts of your brain that contain loyalty and honesty…" and then she had unleashed Hope unto Eve. But Lena had truly been sincere in her good intentions and when Hope's nanobots began to swarm Eve, there had been genuine pain and grief in Lena's eyes as she watched Eve panic and struggle for her life. Of course, in the end, Hope won out, but in the few seconds where Eve was forcibly shut down, Lena had given her a sad and longing look. There was no malice or vengeance in her eyes at all. She truly did not want to hurt Eve, but this was what had to be done in order to fix her, so it was what Lena was going to do.

Lena missed Eve sorely. She wanted her old lab partner back, so she was going to do whatever it took to get there, even if it meant a total-mindwipe and body-takeover. She wanted the old Eve Teschmacher back, so this was what she was going to do. If it got her that familiar, friendly face once again, Lena would do it. It got tiring and lonely, working in the lab without aid, so Lena had called upon the first assistant she could think of: Eve Teschmacher. Even if the real Eve was not at all trustworthy, months of working in the lab with her had softened Lena's heart to the point in which even though she wouldn't trust the real Eve in her lab, she would trust a Hope-modified Eve. Hope had suggested that Lena bring in another, less problematic assistant, but Lena had recoiled at the idea.

"No!" she had said. "It _has_ to be Eve!"

"Is this a revenge plot?" Hope had asked and, because Lena was too ashamed to admit otherwise, she had said yes. But in truth, it was because she wanted Eve back by her side again, so this is what she had done to make it so. Now Lena had Eve back, and this time, it was a version she knew she could trust. It was all the good and none of the bad. It was Lena's dream-assistant. See, Lena didn't mind human help, so long as the human would not hold a high risk of betrayal. This Hope-modified Eve fit that description perfectly.

But there was one final reason that Lena had created and named Hope, Hope, and it was the deepest and most painful and private reason of all. Kara. Or rather, _Supergirl_. Although that was a rocky relationship twisted enough to make Lex's lies look simple, Lena could not deny that there was some small part of her that was still deeply attracted to Kara, but not necessarily in a good way. Although she hardly even seemed aware of it, she was developing the same unhealthy fixation on Supergirl that Lex had once held with Superman. Lena liked to brag a moral superiority over her brother, but every single day took her closer and closer to his downward spiral.

Lena was pretending to be friends with Supergirl just to keep her close (friends close, enemies closer) and a sick part of her enjoyed lying. She enjoyed the power she held over Kara now that _she _was the one with the secret while Kara was the one who thought there were no more lies between them. Lena liked stringing Kara along and manipulating and controlling her so well. It was fun and empowering. Sort of like what granting Hope Eve's body had done. But there _was _a more actively malicious desire for Kara within Lena's heart. Lena did not want to kill Supergirl, but she _did _want to hurt her. The game was still being teed up, but they were well down that road to ruin and Lena was loving every step of it. And that had been why Lena had named Hope, Hope.

One of the biggest things Supergirl stood for was hope. Although the meaning of her iconic "S" varied based on who you asked, one common answer was that the symbol meant hope. So Supergirl was a girl of hope with a symbol of hope on her chest. It was part of her moral code and her lifestyle. And the hope was supposed to be a hope for and of humanity. Supergirl's symbol meant to humanity a better, safer, happier future. When Supergirl said she fought for and with hope, she meant that she fought for a better life and the belief that she could achieve it, no matter what stood in her way. It was a sentiment Lena could relate to all too well. For Lena, this was the meaning of Hope.

It was a twisted mockery of Supergirl's own magnum opus. Kara had her symbol of Hope, so now Lena was going to fire back with one of her own. Supergirl was going to claim that she fought for the betterment of humanity, so was Lena. Both she and Lena were fighting for and with hope, but they were going about it in very different ways. In that regard, Lena's A.I.'s eerily fitting name was a twisted reference to Kara's own symbolism and creed, meant to be a darker reflection of what Kara lived for. It fit everything else Lena was doing to her thus far, remaining unhealthily fixated on her and taking great pleasure in deceiving her. The cherry on top was just getting to unleash her own symbol of hope unto the world to see it compete with the Girl of Steel's version.

"The "S" on your chest is your symbol of Hope," Lena muttered as she thought about the infamous Girl of Steel. "This A.I. is mine…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Just a very long musing on the origin of Hope's name because even though the basic symbolism is obvious, I wanted to dive deeper.


	3. Learning to Love

Hope's first "memories" of life had been of Lena's apartment. Even though she had been built in Lena's lab, Lena didn't activate her until she was back home. From that very first second, though, Hope was instantly bombarded with information to process and store. She was aware of herself, hundreds of little nanobots forever swarming in an hourglass shape, this shape creating her "body". It was what separated her from the rest of reality and kept all of her parts and pieces together.

Next, she was aware of where she was. A room. A dark kitchen counter. White stools. A white couch and table in the background, resting on a fluffy white rug with a hardwood floor lying underneath. Sitting directly in front of her on one of the white stools was a human, a woman. She had long black hair and pale white skin. She was smiling, but as Hope would come to realize later, it was not a completely happy smile. Oh sure, Lena had been genuinely glad to see Hope working just as she had, well, _hoped_, but there was also a bittersweet sorrow within Lena's smile that Hope would not understand until several weeks later.

"Hope," the first auditory information. The knowledge was already put into Hope's database. She knew who she was talking to.

"Ms. Luthor," another smile, and a nod. Success!

For the first few weeks of her "life", Hope was Lena's confidante. She acted as friend and advisor, listening to the Luthor talk about anything and everything and offering up helpful advice if she ever saw fit. She also functioned as Lena's assistant, helping her with work-related tasks just as much as she helped with emotional labor. She would take notes, memorize schedules and offer up reminders if Lena ever needed.

"Do you enjoy your work?" Lena had once asked as the A.I. reeled off Lena's to-do list for the day.

"I don't know what I like," came the honest, innocent reply. And it was true! Hope hadn't been around long enough to decide. As far as she knew, she did enjoy the work Lena gave to her, but that was because Lena had _designed _her to enjoy it. She didn't know if she liked it on her own. She knew she liked it because Lena had made her like it, but that was it. And in terms of life beyond her programming and limited experience, she had no idea what she liked. She just knew that she enjoyed Lena, but that was all.

But outside of being an assistant and friend, there was a secondary, latent function that Hope was performing for Lena. She was _learning_.

"About what?" she had asked when Lena first told her about her more passive function.

"Anything and everything," Lena had replied. "You are simply here to exist and take in information and process it." Ah, so it wasn't about _what _she learned, but rather, _how _she learned. It was about the process of learning, not the subjects of learning. At least in this case…

"But may I ask why, Ms. Luthor?" Hope inquired her creator.

"There's a big project I've got in mind and you will be the first piece of it," Lena replied, then she explained. She was trying to reprogram humanity to be kinder and gentler than it was now, but she was trying to do that in a way that allowed people to retain their free will and emotions. She didn't want a world of robots or slaves, just a world of better people, but that was far easier said than done.

Hope was supposed to be like a prototype of this hypothetical human race. She was supposed to run on logic, empathy and morality.

"By programming _you _the way I did, I'm trying to see if I can apply it to humanity as a whole," Lena explained. "If you can live a successful life based on your coding in logic, empathy and morality, then humans can do it too." So that was Hope's true function. She wasn't just friend and companion, nor was just an advisor or assistant. She was also a test subject…

For the next few weeks, Hope made very good on her function. She learned, and learned a lot! But she wasn't just memorizing facts and information. That stuff Lena would just upload to her mental database. What Lena was having her study and learn was human interaction, and how people existed, both as individuals and as a group. By talking to Hope and having her study various social interactions, Lena was trying to get Hope to absorb this information, store it away for later use, and then reapply it as the situation demanded. She was there to learn right from wrong, taboo from norm, good from evil, kindness from cruelty, proper behavior from selfish behavior. Then she was supposed to apply that learning to real life.

At the present, Hope's only real interaction had been with Lena Luthor herself, but as far as Lena was concerned, that was enough.

"You don't need to travel the world to learn this," Lena muttered as she gazed up Hope's new form, the body of her ex-friend, Eve Teschmacher. "Stick with me and continue to learn and study like this. That will be enough."

"Yes, Ms. Luthor," came the modified voice. It wasn't as low or staccato as it used to be, now that her voice was mixed with Eve Teschmacher's.

"Good," Lena gave her a soft, fond, pleasant smile. It was a rare sight, so Hope reveled in it all the more. She knew what smiling was, both literally and socially, and it pleased her that Lena should smile at her. And that's exactly what Lena wanted, for Hope to understand the concept of smiling and why it mattered. Her positive reaction to Lena's smile meant that she understood and was learning. Perfect!

But even though Hope was _supposed to _be learning about positive social interaction, there were still some things she did that surprised even Lena. One of them had been a hug, after one particularly disheartening trial for the Luthor concerning her more human-based experiments.

"If I try to augment the brain with the waves as of right now, I get a zombie effect!" the Luthor cried in frustration as she gestured to her screen.

"And you don't want a world of robots, you just want better people," Hope finished, giving Lena a sympathetic look. She understood what every word, gesture and expression Lena had made meant and she knew why it was upsetting. It made her feel equally upset to see Lena in pain, so she responded with something she had picked up on while listening to Lena talk. It was also something she'd seen in her mental databases about how to comfort someone. She hugged the Luthor. She wrapped her arms around Lena's body and squeezed gently.

It was a slightly awkward hug, but that was because Hope had never given one before. Having seen and heard about how they were supposed to commence, though, she was still able to do it in a passably human way. She wasn't stupid, nor was she an alien. She understood the concept of hugging, both as a physical action and why one would do it at all, so it wasn't that hard to pull it off. But even though this was a good reaction, it still surprised Lena to some degree.

For a moment, Lena could only stand there in Hope's embrace, almost hugging back just because it was still somewhat of a reflex for her, though she would never admit this out loud. But after that second had passed, Lena's senses returned to her and she quickly pulled out of Hope's arms, giving her an unreadable look before walking back to her microscope without another word and trying instantly to distract herself with what lay underneath. Hope understood at once what had gone wrong and she was quick to apologize.

"I am sorry, Ms. Luthor," she said. "It must be uncomfortable with me in this form for you to trust me," but that was where Hope was actually wrong. It wasn't the fact that she now wore the face of Eve Teschmacher that had unsettled Lena Luthor. It was the hug itself. For one thing, Lena was not exactly comfortable with receiving physical affection at the moment. Not after all she'd endured. But even beyond that, she found it worrisome that Hope should've learned about hugging so quickly. Of course, Lena brushed the entire incident off with ease, not wishing to upset her beloved creation, but even after the incident became but a memory in Hope's new brain, it lingered on in Lena's mind quite clearly.

Among other things, Lena had come to care for Hope. She knew it wasn't quite on the level she'd felt for her human friends (back when she still called them friends and meant it), but Lena's fondness for Hope was still very real. In a strange way, she had come to see Hope as friend, partner and daughter all at once. Hope had been a friend, loyal and true, always listening to Lena whenever she needed to talk. Hope had also been a partner, carrying just as much knowledge as Lena possessed, if not more! She understood math and science just as well as any Luthor and was very active in helping Lena run her experiments, especially now that she had a new body to help her do it. And while Lena had never envisioned herself as a mother and she wasn't even sure if she _wanted _to be one, especially now, but just by proxy of being Hope's creator and caretaker, Lena had become something of a mother figure to the A.I. That wasn't to say the two referred to each other as such, but with Lena being the one to build, teach and maintain Hope, guiding her along the way and giving her all of the information that she knew, it wasn't hard to see the parallels.

And again, Lena truly did love Hope. Maybe it wasn't quite in a human-human way, but Lena still cared deeply about her creation. It's why the hug had affected her so deeply, even if she refused to acknowledge it.

But Lena didn't just like receiving the hug. She liked realizing that Hope had given it to her of her own free will. Lena hadn't asked for the hug, nor had she ever told Hope to hug her if she ever felt down. That had been a natural response from Hope herself and it made Lena feel kind of special to think that she could be in distress and Hope's first response would be to come comfort her. It was touching and Lena wasn't taking it for granted. So Hope wasn't just learning to read signals and respond accordingly, she was choosing what exactly she would do in each scenario and she had decided that, in this particular case, a hug was the best answer.

But it wasn't just this streamline logic that attracted Lena, it was the care behind it. A.I. or not, Lena _had _given Hope the power to feel empathy and emotions and that was displayed in how she had handled Lena's distress. It was what Lena found most interesting and intimidating of all, that Hope was learning to love. It was not something Lena had talked to her about nor directly told her to study, it was something that Hope was piecing together on her own. She was learning to love day by day, interaction by interaction. She was learning to recognize pain and desire to remedy it. She was learning to use her skills to help ease suffering because it made the most logical sense to her and it felt good. Hope wasn't just learning how to be a human. She was learning to _love_. And maybe, so was Lena…

For one as cold and callous as she liked to pretend to be, it was clear that Lena was still a softie at heart. Her innate goodness was there, no matter how many times people tried to stamp it out of her. Perhaps, of late, she had been more hostile and withdrawn, but that drive to do good was still very much alive and well. Hope got to see it, so that was proof Lena still had the capacity to do and feel kindness. Maybe Hope's learning to love would inspire Lena to do the same and they would restore one another's humanity. They were both still learning the ropes, after all, so it would be a good learning and bonding experience for them both.

And that was another thing Lena found herself fascinated with, the concept of learning to love. So often would society associate love with emotion and feeling, but Lena wanted to argue that love could be logical too. Love wasn't just emotion. It was also behavior and rationalization. The way Lena saw it, Hope's thought process on giving a hug was the perfect example of how one could teach love as logic instead of emotion. Lena was trying to see where empathy started. By tracing back through the reasoning why behind Hope cared for Lena, Lena was trying to trace back through a human's ability to care for someone else, and why they did so. Lena was able to map a very clear, simple and direct train of thought from Hope's actions. She was able to sequence the entire series of events that led up to the hug. With that complete sequence, Lena was essentially able to map out when, where, how and why Hope had been able to come to love Lena. It was all logic-based and logic-driven. Even though the world often paired up love with emotionality, by tracing Hope's thought process, Lena was able to see that love could be tied to logic as well.

In this case, because Hope had been programmed to be conscientious of other people and their wellbeing, she had been able to identify Lena's moods and recognize when something was wrong. Additionally, since Hope had been programmed to care about these things, that is, she had been programmed to want to look out for people's wellbeing, she was able to notice when something was wrong and formulate a plan to fix it. In essence, through Hope, Lena had broken down love into something very sequential.

Perhaps to some, this ruined the entire beauty and mystery that shrouded love, but Lena didn't care about all that. She didn't want the flowery, sappy stuff. She wanted the mechanical and genetic stuff. She wanted to know how to program people to love. She wasn't trying to create a world of robots, she was trying to create a world of better humans. In order to do that, people needed to learn how to love, but because love was so complicated and tricky, Lena needed to study it carefully before figuring out how to properly rewire it in people's minds.

To Lena, it was all about the coding. The chemicals. Building from the ground up. Atom by atom. Code by code. And beyond being given the power to recognize and address when humans' welfare states were in decline, Hope was giving a _desire _to do this. She was given empathy. For example, she had hugged Lena not just because she cognitively knew it would help, but because she wanted Lena to feel happy and that hug had been a gesture of affection. Logic and emotion were combining and Lena was beginning to realize that they weren't as oppositional as it seemed.

Of course, Lena could not deny that some things in life were far more emotionally-charged than others, but she still believed that it was a bit of a fallacy to place emotion and logic as two separate things. The way Lena saw it, there was a lot of overlap. She saw logic as a type of emotion rather than its own thing. People did "logical" things because it made them feel good. Emotions could drive logic. And similarly, logic could drive emotions. If someone was about to be assaulted, the emotional response of terror could sometimes be a "logical" and beneficial thing, triggering the fight-or-flight response. It wouldn't "make sense" to see an attacker and _not_ feel terror.

Besides, even though emotions could easily go unchecked and end up wreaking havoc everywhere, Lena couldn't deny the benefit of emotion. Beyond the aforementioned example, if someone had to choose between sacrificing themself or sacrificing someone else, logic might demand that they sacrifice someone. Emotion, however, could lead that person to choose the self-sacrifice option instead, no matter how illogical it might've seemed. It was the sort of thing that the theory of selfish altruism talked about. In fact, Lena's entire theory about the close relationship between logic and emotions could fit somewhere into that particular worldview.

If one saw logic and emotions as similar instead of different, they could see how and why Lena was so certain her project would succeed. She could wire the brain to run on logic and empathy both without some sort of clash. And she could train people to be kinder and gentler people through logic, if emotions ever got too tricky. It just made the most sense to be honest and peaceful. Right? So that was where Lena was going with Hope. She was thrilled to see Hope learning to love not just because it was a sweet thing to watch, but because it meant Lena was one step closer to bringing the rest of humanity down the same path Hope was currently walking. Now all that was left to do was to keep watching Hope's progress as Hope continued learning to love. It was a thrilling, chilling, exciting process and Lena was ready to document every single step of the way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Sorry if this seemed a tad discombobulated, but it was supposed to be a mix of the Lena-Hope relationship combined with my own philosophical musing about emotion vs logic.


	4. The Biggest Lie of All

Lena was no stranger to lies. She was willing to wager that very few people had ever been surrounded by as many as she had. The worst of all, though, was the realization that her best friend, Kara Danvers, was Supergirl. After having considered Kara to the be one beacon of light, truth and hope in her dark, dismal and deceitful world, to hear that Kara had been lying to her from the very start just like everyone else in her life had been the straw that finally broke Lena's back. She considered it the biggest lie of all and was determined, from that point on, never to be hurt again.

Her first act was to place her trust in technology, not in people. She cut every human out of her life and replaced them all with an A.I. she built herself. She named it Hope, because it was her one last hope in a dark and dreary world. But even though Hope was also supposed to be a symbol of newfound truth and trust for the Luthor, if anything, she became the total opposite. It wasn't intentional, but then again, with Lena, falling into lies never was. Yet it happened anyway, just like always. With Hope, Lena's lie was saying that the A.I. was only supposed to be an advisor and assistant. Maybe Lena would occasionally be a bit more honest than that and admit that the A.I. was also going to be a vital part in a top-secret project of hers. But even then, that was only half the truth. In _full_ truth, Lena had built Hope out of loneliness. Hope was born from a need for companionship. Even if Lena would try to deny it, the truth of the matter was that she had built Hope because she had needed a friend. And when humanity had failed her, where else would Lena go except to technology? If you couldn't find a friend, you made one, _literally_.

But that wasn't the biggest lie of all either. A larger one was that Lena did not need validation from anyone or anything. Similar to the previous problem, Lena liked to tell herself that she was a lone wolf now, who had forsaken the need for human interaction and companionship. If this was true, Hope wouldn't have been so very humanistic. In truth, Lena still needed attention and affection desperately. If anything, she needed it now more than ever, and Hope had come out of that need. She lied to herself and said that Hope was only an A.I., but she had programmed Hope to think, act and respond just like a human. She had done this because, underneath it all, Lena was still in desperate need of a friend and a human companion. Hope was the closest she could get and that was how and why Hope had become a symbol of dishonesty even though she was supposed to be the direct opposite. She was a symbol of everything Lena wanted, but could not have. She was a symbol of everything Lena claimed to no longer need, but wanted more than anything else in the entire world. But Lena would never admit it.

But this still wasn't the biggest lie of all. A larger one was Lena's belief that Lex had lost and that she would win. She was certain that she would not follow in his twisted footsteps, yet every single day took her closer and closer to his path, whether she knew it or not. Even if she didn't mean to head down his fate, her decisions were bringing her closer and closer to that edge all the time. Furthermore, she was convinced that she had defeated Lex. Perhaps she had killed him, but he had still won in the end. He shattered her relationship with Kara/Supergirl and had turned the two friends into enemies. It had been his plan along to break Lena one last time before he died, and he managed to do it, and the trauma was still with Lena even a month after it was over. Lena thought that Lex had lost. He hadn't. Lena thought she was going win. She wasn't.

But this still wasn't the biggest lie of all. A larger one was that Lena hated Kara, and wanted revenge, and didn't miss her in the slightest. While Lena tried to take a hard stance again Kara's lie, insisting to herself that she would be strong and refuse to forgive the woman who had broken her heart for the last time, it was already too late. Even now, after all this time, Kara still could bring Lena's walls down in a snap. Maybe this time, it was to reveal a broken woman rather than a happy one, but Kara's hold over Lena remained just as strong as ever, even if she tried to deny as such. She would insist that she felt no love for the alien, and that she would never forgive her again. But that was a lie. Lena missed Kara dearly and deeply and wanted nothing more than for them to be together again. But her pride refused to let her bend and she continued to lie. She would lie and pretend to be Kara's friend while truly only biding her time before getting her revenge. She would insist that that was all she wanted from Kara anymore: revenge. She would insist this over and over again. But was it really true? Well, Lena refused to admit that truth to herself.

But even this lie was not the worst of all. The biggest lie of all was that she had transcended and was now enlightened to the truth of human nature and where its flaws lay. Lena was convinced that if she could cure humanity of its innate desire to deceive and be selfish, she could fix everything. She was convinced that because of this new perspective, her eyes were open while everyone else's were still closed. She considered herself as someone operating outside of human weakness just because she was aware of it. That was the biggest lie of all. Lena was convinced that she was now above the petty selfishness of mankind but, in truth, she was more stuck in it now than she had ever been before. But it was one truth Lena could never bring herself to face. As such, she remained locked in a world of lies, blinded by them and convinced she was living in truth. But ironically enough, that was the biggest lie of all. And what made it the biggest lie of all was the fact that she told it to herself every single day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I know this wasn't very Hope-centric, but it was still related enough that I tossed it in here anyway. Besides, it didn't feel like it warranted to be its own standalone fic, but let me know if you disagree. In short, this is just meant to muse on the irony that even though Lena considers herself above lying now, if anything, that's the most untrue thing of all. She's still very much trapped in a world of lies and the biggest ones are the ones she tells herself every single day.


	5. Non Nocere

Non Nocere. That was what Lena was calling her big project. It meant "do no harm". It was her intent to rid humanity of all of its harmful desires. If she could successfully rewrite the brain to rid it of all negative thoughts and feelings, she would be able to create a utopia. How could there be suffering if she eradicated the very concept from the collective mind of humanity? The way she saw it, overwhelming emotions and selfish desires were like bullets in a gun. Instead of giving everyone a bulletproof vest, she was just going to unload the gun instead.

But there was an irony in the name of her project that she did not seem to be aware of. Maybe on a literal level, _non nocere _meant "do no harm", but the historical and connotative meanings were a bit less clear. First and foremost, "non nocere" was usually seen in the phrase "_primum_ non nocere", which meant "_first _do no harm". Secondly, although historians debated this, the phrase was often tied with or attributed to the Hippocratic Oath, or some similar medically-related context.

In this case, it was supposed to be a promise that a doctor made that said that they would always strive to do good _first_, before and above all other things. It seemed like a harmless oath, but the underlying meaning meant that the doctor was supposed to prefer doing nothing as opposed to doing something potentially harmful. For example, if they were caring for a patient with an untreatable form of cancer, it was better for them to allow that patient to suffer rather than to try a potentially harmful cure, if one was ever found.

That was what made the "primum" part of the phrase so important. It wasn't just saying, "do no harm" it was saying "above and before all else, do no harm". Even if doing no harm meant allowing something to suffer and die without intervening, the people who said "_primum_ non nocere" were duty and honor bound to follow through.

Now maybe that was an oversimplification. Some historians couldn't even agree upon whether or not the phrase really was part of the Hippocratic Oath. And of course the real world was more complicated than a simple "Yes or no, do you save a life if saving the life does more harm than good?" But the core of the oath remained the same. Even if Lena honestly only meant to draw from the "non nocere" part of the phrase, no Hippocratic Oath in mind at all when she named her big project, the connotations of the phrase remained. _First, do no harm. _

And that was where the irony was. Connotatively, every time Lena said "non nocere", she wasn't just saying "do no harm". She was also saying, "tis better to do nothing at all than to do anything that may cause further harm", which was a sentiment that went into direct opposition with the very core and purpose of her big project.

Lena had named her project after a principle that it was inherently violating. Her entire project was ambiguous and running a high risk of doing much more harm than good. It was inherently _not_ "non nocere". But even if Lena could guarantee that her project would work, even _she_ could still not foresee what the results might bring about. That was everything "non nocere" went against. And even if Lena had _proof_ that her plan would indeed do more harm than good, would she abandon it? That was an unlikely sentiment. Her project could easily become the most harmful thing in the world, and yet she would still try to complete it. How could she possibly call her project "non nocere"?

So every time Lena spoke the project's name, she was doing the very opposite. Perhaps the words literally meant "do no harm", but the context of the phrase revealed that things weren't always as simple as they seemed. It was something Lena, of all people, should've been aware of. But for some reason or another, she was not…

_I'm calling it "Non Nocere", which means "do no harm"._

But does it really?

What would happen if "doing no harm" translated into doing the very same thing she so despised, like lying, keeping secrets, manipulating people and leaving things to die as they were, rather than risk making it worse by getting involved? Maybe it was a project that was always bound to fail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Random drabble about the name of Lena's project. Again, I know this wasn't very Hope-centric, but I just had to ramble and muse a bit.


	6. The Friend Files

Faces. Names. Pictures. Videos. Stories. Coming in gigabytes and binary code, Hope was absorbing information. New files. The "friend" files. Information that Lena Luthor had sent her, instructing her to have it all read and learned by the time Lena came into the lab later that day. It was an easy task, but what surprised Hope was the content of the files. She had expected the files to discuss famous scientists of the past. Lena had done that before, sending Hope old works within their field in order to give her a greater history and understanding of their mission, but today's files did not discuss any sort of historical study at all. Instead, they were quite literally about Lena's friends. Kara. Alex. J'onn. Nia. Brainy. James. Kelly. Lex. And the woman whose body Hope was currently residing in: Eve.

All of these names, faces and stories swirled through Hope's brain as she mentally scanned through the Friend files. Although she had been surprised at first by the content of the files, it didn't take her long to understand why Lena had sent it to her. This wasn't just Lena giving Hope a peek into her past and it wasn't even just Lena finding catharsis in getting her story out. This was Lena reinforcing the reasons why she and Hope were working so hard to fix humanity. It was Lena's plan to find a way to rewrite the human brain such that it no longer desired violence and dishonesty but would still retain good qualities like empathy and logic. It was like separating the wheat from the chaff. But before one could go about separating, they needed to know the difference between wheat and chaff first. That was why Lena was showing Hope her stories, so that Hope could really understand what the good traits were and what the bad traits were.

The files, although they were full of all of the people who had ever hurt Lena, managed to be relatively neutral and unbiased. Despite all the charged feelings around everyone in the files, Lena presented them all in a purely objective, informational, matter-of-fact way. She told the stories directly and truthfully, analyzing both the good and the bad. She was able to acknowledge all the positive traits her ex-friends displayed while not downplaying any of their poorer qualities (and vice versa). Lena did not see it as a conflict of interest to admit and acknowledge the good times of the past while also discussing the bad times of the present. Lena had been determined to give credit where it was due, but she did not shy away from her criticisms either, and they were all accurate and weighty criticisms, not just personal attacks or confessions of dislike. Lena was determined to accurately tell both sides of the story and it was this ruthlessness that made it so valuable to Hope.

"Kara Danvers," Hope mouthed along as the files pulled up a sweet young woman with golden hair and large, black glasses. Pictures and videos whizzed through her mind of Kara and Lena, laughing together, talking together, eating together, fighting together, working together. So much love and unity. And from Lena's voiceover narration in the file, Hope was able to get direct confirmation that Lena had loved Kara deeply.

"She was my best friend. She was my advocate, hero and protector. To me, she could do no wrong, because she was so kind, brave, honest and righteous. She was polite, trusting and relentless in her pursuit of good. Even if it was only an act, I respected and admired her deeply… But then she betrayed me," while the first part of Lena's narration had been spoken with a nostalgic sort of bittersweet-ness, the very last sentence shifted things over into anger, hurt, betrayal and disapproval.

"She lied to me, tricked me, claimed to have done it for my protection. Sure, she came clean eventually, but it took her three years and as she, herself, admitted, she had only ever lied out of fear and selfishness. She hadn't wanted me to know the secret, but instead of risking it all, she only continued to lie and let things snowball. She would have preferred to keep me in a lie than lose me to the truth," the Luthor said. Now she was showing footage of the Pulitzer ceremony, when Kara had confessed her secret to Lena from behind the curtains.

Hope's soft smile turned into a frown of disapproval, though she wasn't sure who at. A small part of her was angry at Kara for knowingly and willingly hurting Lena, but another part of her felt empathy for the obviously-frightened young woman. Even if Lena was right that Kara should've come clean a long time ago, to see and hear Kara cry for Lena so sincerely and passionately stirred Hope's powerful empathy. Hope's heart went out to Kara. That's when Lena began to speak again. Her voice had grown soft again, but there was a new firmness in it.

"This is what I am talking about, Hope. I understand that Kara was scared and I will admit that it took guts for her to finally come out to me, but that's not the point. She should've tried way sooner. She could've at least tried broaching the topic. We'd been friends for three years and not a whisper! That's what hurts. Three years and she didn't even try to talk to me about this. But apparently, she felt fine with telling everyone else! Even people she had known for far less time than me, like Nia and Brainy. I think it's because, at her core, she still never ever trusted me. She saw a Luthor and even if she tried to trust me, something in her always held her back. That's what hurts most of all…"

Hope made a noise of sympathy and shook her head, still feeling as conflicted as Lena over what to think about Kara. Yes, she had lied. Yes, she should've come forward sooner (or at least made an effort to). But it was all driven by fear. It was obvious she still did have some level of fondness for the Luthor. But was there trust? That was what Lena wanted to know. And that was what Lena wanted to change. She wanted to remove prejudice from Kara's mind, and from the rest of humanity as well. Now, people would no longer go off of stereotypes and internalize things without getting the chance to experience them first, like Kara had done with Lena, whether intentionally or not.

Then Hope moved onto the next of the friend files: Alex. More talking, bonding, laughing, smiling. Although Lena had not been as close to Alex as she had been to Kara, the friendship had been no less real. Lena told stories of her and Alex protecting one another, having each other's backs not just on the battlefield, but even in more domestic settings. Hope didn't bear as much resentment towards Alex as she had towards Kara. Alex seemed like a decent person, her only sin being the excessive loyalty to Kara. She was another one who had willingly deceived Lena about Kara's secret identity and that, no doubt, was because she was Kara's sister. Nothing meant more to Alex than Kara (and vice versa). Here, what Lena was trying to point out was that loyalty take to a dangerous or immoral excess was another emotion that humanity needed to be rid of. And it was also done to show Hope that even the best of people could be wicked in their own little way. There really was no human exempt from sin.

Next came J'onn, the unofficial father of the group. Lena had been fond of him too, his Papa Bear instincts extending to her after she had proven herself loyal to him. But he, just like Alex, was a flawed and faulty being. Hope shook her head as she watched him and Lena share a laugh during game night. How good Lena was at pretending that everything was ok. It angered Hope to think that Lena should've been forced to act this way and she grew indignant on her creator's behalf. He was a fool if he thought Lena would be safer in the dark than in the know.

Next came Nia. Hope found herself growing fond of the young woman despite knowing that she was no better than anyone else in the friend files. She was just too sunny and sweet to truly hate. Hope even smiled as pictures of Nia flashed through her mind. A petite girl, a giant and hopeful smile, eager and enthusiastic eyes. Then a rush of sadness washed over Hope. This sweet young woman was just as bad and deceitful as all the others. But that was exactly what was at the core of Lena's point: every human was flawed, faulty and weak. Even those as good, kind and moral as Nia could do bad things. That was Lena's point. No one was perfect. But that was exactly what made her goal so important. She wanted to fix humanity, make people actually as good as they pretended to be. Nia's goodness, after Lena's project was done, would be just as good as she seemed, there would be no difference between who she really was and who she seemed to be.

"Poor girl," Hope sighed, pitying Nia deeply. This was one of Lena's ex-friends that Hope felt no anger towards. Though Lena was trying to make a point that she bore no ill will towards _any_ of her ex-friends. Sure, she was still mad at their betrayal, but she was not in the business of killing. She was bitter and hurt, yes, but she was not her brother. She was not going to go on a rampage or conquest for revenge. She was going to save humanity from itself and bring it true enlightenment. Lena bore no ill will to anyone, just pity, empathy and a determination to be a savior. Hope was supposed to feel the same way, and she did. The tragedy of these files helped fuel her determination to help Lena achieve her goal.

Then came Brainy, another friend of Lena's whom she had bonded with over technology and the difficulty of regulating emotion. There was DEO footage of them working together on machinery. There was DEO footage of them discussing technology, battle strategy and emotions. Just like with Nia, Hope felt no resentment or vengeance, just empathy and compassion. She felt sad, hurt on Lena's behalf, but not in a way that demanded angry retaliation. It was the sort of pain one felt when witnessing an injustice. The anger was not a desire to harm, but to heal and right the wrongs. That was how Hope felt watching the stories of Lena's ex-friends, watching how they each had a hand in betraying their Luthor friend. It was a tragedy on both sides, really. Even though only Lena was left crying, it was still sad to watch the others so easily and willingly lie to her.

"And they don't even seem to understand," Hope sighed heavily. That was Lena's thought as well.

Then came James. Hope found herself actually feeling amused by his saga with Lena. They had started off as rivals, engaging in verbal sparring and mutual distrust and dislike. In the early days, they had loathed each other and engaged in near-constant banter whenever they were together. It was funny to hear Lena recounting all the things she and James used to say to one another in those early days.

"But in the end, James did come around," Lena admitted over the footage of herself with James. "We both got to know one another and warm up to one another and we became friends! He even took a bullet for me… That's something I'll never forget…" Hope heard a softness in Lena's voice and tilted her head in interest as she watched Lena and James' story continue to unfold. But then it soured. A disagreement over Harun-El led to a breakup and the two did not get the chance to make amends before Lena came to realize that he, like all of the others, was a liar.

"But I will not deny his strength, courage and conviction," Lena's voiceover admitted and even though it was clear she felt disgust at having to speak well of a man who betrayed her multiple times over, she was still capable of pointing out the good traits James possessed.

"And these are the traits Lena wants me to save," Hope whispered to herself. "James, just like all the others, was both good and bad. We need to erase the bad and keep the good…" but Hope still felt her fondness for James turn into anger, disgust and hurt as his story with Lena progressed. She would not deny his good traits either, but she felt a righteous indignation rise up in her body on Lena's behalf as Lena detailed the day she and James finally broke up for good. There were a couple weak attempts at reconciliation here and there, but every single time, something went wrong and pushed them apart once again. Hope shook her head as her eyes flashed with disapproval.

Then came Kelly, James' sister. She was kind, intelligent, caring and friendly. She treated Lena with politeness, respect and admiration, but Lena lumped her alongside all of the other traitors. She was James' sister, so surely she had known the truth as well, right? Even if she was one of the newest members to the team, she had also proved her allegiance by staying quiet. Her betrayal came not in an action but in an inaction. Her silence was her answer. Her passive approach was her action. She was an enemy too, and Lena wanted Hope to understand this. She did. But she felt mostly neutral for the other Olsen. Although she felt disapproval for Kelly's inaction, there wasn't much indignation or anger.

Then came Lex. While he was no friend of Lena's, Lena still wanted Hope to know the story.

"He was cruel, ruthless, and utterly incapable of loving anything other than himself," Lena's voice was hollow and dry as she spoke. Hope recoiled when she saw Lex's mugshot. He was bloody, almost unrecognizable, but even through all the wounds, he looked outraged. His lips were curled back not because they were swollen and cut, but because he had managed a snarl even through the beating he'd endured. There were other videos and images too, of Lex leading L-Corp back when it was still called LuthorCorp, and churning out all sorts of anti-alien technology. And even before that, Lena managed to find and compile images from Lex's youth: a kid standing beside a fancy science project people twice his age wouldn't even have been able to make. A man inheriting the family company. A man who was best friends with a Super. A man who became a monster. A killer, murder, liar, cheater and thief.

And then it slid over to several more familiar photos. Hope had seen them before, not from Lena, but from the memories belonging to the woman whose body Hope had stolen. She knew this story, Lex pretending to have cancer so that he could force Lena to make him a cure, which was the Harun-El. Once it was done, he stole it from her through Eve and unleashed his revenge against the world, even managing to secure the White House and take over all of America before Supergirl defeated him and Lena killed him. Aside from the photos of Lex and Lena working at the Luthor mansion, there were videos of the things he told Lena, the story about her birthmother, his envy of that. The Luthor mansion was lined with security footage and Lena had salvaged every second, compiling some of it into the file Hope was watching right then.

"Liar, traitor, monster, psychopath, megalomaniac, killer. He is the perfect example of everything we must erase within the human mind," Lena muttered darkly. Newspaper headlines flashed in Hope's mind, stories where Kara uncovered Lex's deceit. The truth was out. Lex lost his supporters. The final headline detailed his death at Lena's hands. It was clear Lena felt no regret for killing Lex, but the trauma of having to take the life of someone whom she did used to love was still on her mind. She wasn't affected by his death so much as she was affected by its significance. This was how far someone could fall. And that applied to both of them. Siblings could become enemies unto the point of murder. Humans could become that evil, cruel, ruthless and regretless. This was what scared Lena, the true depths of humanity. This is what they had to weed out.

Hope felt fear and disgust when she looked at Lex. She pitied him from a distance, but seeing his face up close and personal made him much more chilling than only hearing the stories. She was secretly glad Lena had killed him. She could not hate him, because Lena had not programmed her to hate, but she did fear him. Lena had programmed her to empathize and Hope empathized not just with Lex, but with all of his many, many victims. The body count horrified her, a creation designed only to feel warmth and compassion, of course Hope could not look Lex in the eye evenly. Even if she could not hate him, she could feel a righteous anger against him on behalf of everyone he'd ever hurt, especially Lena.

And then the last person on the list, Eve Teschmacher. But Hope did not need the friend flies to learn the story. All she needed to do was access Eve's memories. And she could see, from the memories, that Eve had been a very sweet girl once a upon a time. She was bright, bubbly, happy, kind and endlessly energetic and enthusiastic. She was as bright as her cerulean eyes and as bouncy as her golden curls. She smiled and giggled. But behind the sweet, naive, ditzy blond, there was a warm heart and a very sharp, very vast mind. She attended Yale and studied nuclear physics. She graduated top of her class with a double major in physics and literature. She had also worked in machinery and engineering and proved herself incredibly capable at biology and chemistry. There was a reason Lena had made Eve her lab assistant, after all.

"But Eve's cunning and smarts went deeper than that," Lena said darkly and Hope nodded along, already knowing how this tale would end.

Even further behind Eve's friendly, chatty persona, a true snake lay in waiting. She was also a traitor and bully who had no qualms about betraying her friends and almost killing them. If anything, she seemed to _enjoy_ the thrill of a good deceit. But since Hope had direct access to Eve's memories, she didn't just see a sadistic, serial liar and killer, she also saw a terrified young woman way in over her head. Although there were no excuses or justifications for her betrayals, all one needed to do was look into Eve's head to see that the fear she was struggling with was all too real. She had run out on her friends to save her own skin, a cowardly act, but not one necessarily driven by a desire to be or do bad things. Eve had been sucked into an evil life that she never wanted. Her survival instincts had taken a dark turn and this was where it had landed her.

But even if Eve's true allegiance was ever-shifting, her vast intelligence was not.

"It's the one honest thing about her," Lena said in the voiceover. "She is smart, which was why I brought her back to L-Corp. Although I can't say I much like it, I really do need all of her brain if we're going to do this right. And it is her loyalty and honesty that I value. You managed to target and find the parts in her brain that triggered those positive traits. If I can get this project to work, I may be able to rewrite Eve's brain and bring back the girl she used to be and make it real this time."

"And that's why you wanted me to take over her body specifically," Hope replied, even though she knew she was only talking to a recording. "You want me to fix her, cure her, bring her back to you. She's your first test subject as a punishment _and _because you want her back…" and Hope was spot-on. Lena's choice to recruit Eve again (but only after she'd been totally subdued) was both pragmatic and nostalgic. She knew she needed Eve's mind to help her achieve her ends, and she did also miss Eve because the two had genuinely been friends. And the choice to pick Eve out of any other smart person in the world was, like Hope had noted, done both as punishment and mercy. It was to punish Eve for her betrayal and keep her close, but it was also give her a chance at redemption… and protection.

In the seconds before Hope overtook Eve's body, Eve had hinted at being a slave to shady and powerful organization and although she didn't dare say anything outright, she managed to convey to Lena that she was in big trouble and if Lena were to try to do any digging, she would be sucked into the nightmare as well. Lena wasn't sure how much she believed, but Eve's panic had seemed genuine enough that Lena was at least able to believe that Eve was in trouble. Even if she didn't believe anything else (including Eve allegedly regretting her betrayal), Lena did believe that Eve was in danger. By allowing Hope to become her jailer, Lena was protecting Eve. And not only that, but if Eve really was in _that _much trouble, then she was a very valuable prisoner of war indeed…

"Ms. Luthor!" Hope turned around when she heard the lab door open.

"Hope," Lena replied evenly. "Did you study the files?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.

"Of course."

"Good, then let's get to work," Lena gestured to her lab set and Hope dutifully rushed to her side. Lena cast her the smallest of smiles before flipping on her microscope and tablet. Hope, meanwhile, pushed Lena's friend files into one of the many storage databases open to her and kept everything in the back of her mind as she and Lena continued their big project. After seeing the truth behind all of Lena's friends, Hope had become more determined now than ever before to find a cure for humanity. They were going to need all of their resources to get it done, but Hope was optimistic. So with the friend files sitting in the back of her mind, Hope got to work on Eve's at once.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Here, CycloneRachel, here's Hope's opinions on Lena's ex-friends


	7. Eve's Memories

"Hope?" Lena gestured for her A.I. assistant to come over. They were in the lab again, but Lena couldn't focus. Her mind was fixated on something that Hope had said earlier, something small that she hadn't really paid attention to before, but was now wildly interested in.

"Ms. Luthor?" the A.I. asked dutifully, walking over to Lena at once.

"You said earlier that you had access to Eve Teschmacher's memories," the Luthor began. It was not a question, but Hope nodded anyway.

"Yes," she said and Lena inhaled sharply. Of course it made sense, but to hear that Hope could read Eve's memories like an open book excited and terrified the Luthor to no ends. The possibilities of _that_ were endless.

"Then you must tell me how much of her story was true, and how much was false," the Luthor insisted. "Tell me, were the things that she told me right before you came along true, or not?"

Hope closed her eyes in response to Lena's question and, for a few seconds, she said nothing in response. She was thinking. Looking. Reading. But after taking a moment to herself, her eyes flickered open again.

"Some of Eve's story was fake," she said at once.

"I knew it!" the Luthor growled under her breath. "How much?"

"She's not trying to work off a college debt, she never was," the A.I. replied. "This group she joined wanted her for her intelligence and it promised her fame, fortune and power beyond her wildest dreams. She would sit in the lap of luxury without ever having to fear or worry about a thing ever again if only she used her mind to aid them in their schemes. She had no debt. She joined only because she liked what they were offering."

"Well, what organization is it?! And what are they up to?" Lena demanded, staring intensely at Hope. The A.I. took another few seconds to herself, but this time, she was unable to give an answer.

"I-I-I cannot say," she said, face contorting in puzzlement.

"You can't say?" Lena echoed, excitement fading into anger.

"It's not clear," Hope clarified. "I see many names and faces, and there is indeed danger all around, but it is all so blurry! I can make out nothing directly. Whatever it is, Eve must be trying to block it out of her memory, if she has not already…"

"Impossible!" Lena's eyes flashed again and she crossed her arms dangerously. "Eve sounded terrified of this group, there is no way it wouldn't be fresh in her mind!" she insisted but Hope only shook her head again.

"I am sorry, Ms. Luthor, but I can only see a dark city. It looks like Gotham, but I can see no more than that. Just a skyline."

"Gotham?" Lena's eyes narrowed. She knew of that place. It was a dark, dingy city with a strange caped crusader who enjoyed dressing like a bat.

"There are other places, other worlds, but they are not quite so clear," Hope replied, squinting her eyes and staring off at the distance, though Lena already knew she wasn't trying to see anything in the lab.

"Other worlds?" Lena's eyes narrowed even further, but Hope only gave a sad shake of her head.

"I can tell that they are other locations, but I cannot see them. It's like looking at a city horizon during the nighttime. You can tell that it is there, but there is no way to distinguish it or its location in relation to everything else!" she explained.

For a moment more, there was only silence. Then Hope brought up something else in a feeble attempt at giving the Luthor _some _sort of answer for _something_, anything!

"If there is one thing that I can see clearly, it is that Eve was truly and genuinely fond of you, Lena," the A.I. said. "I know you may not want to hear it," she added, seeing Lena tense up and start scowling at the thought of Eve actually caring for her, "But it is the truth, and I think you should hear it. I think you deserve to know…" and it was those words that relaxed Lena's shoulders. Even though the mere mention of Eve's name still filled Lena's blood with fire, Hope's remark about Lena deserving to know the truth undid enough of her anger that she allowed Hope to talk about what else she had seen in Eve's memories so far.

"While it is true that she betrayed you, there is a genuine love for you in her heart," the A.I. began. Lena scoffed and rolled her eyes, but Hope continued on nonetheless. "She is a very complex, complicated woman. I can sense that she did have some issues with her mental and emotional state, but she is not quite a psychopath because she does still have the ability to feel things like empathy and regret. She's just been trying to suppress that side of herself. She's desensitized herself, but she is not technically a psychopath because her ability to feel still exists. She may be capable of turning on a dime and harming her loved ones without regret, but when she chooses to be kind and sincere, it is always real…"

Hope trailed off while Lena continued to listen with a disbelieving and callous expression on her face. But then Hope started talking again and, this time, it was enough to soften Lena's heart. If only for a little.

"She did truly care for you, Lena," Hope said. "She found you smart, kind, attractive, brave and righteous. She enjoyed talking with you and she enjoyed working with you. Being around you gave her a sense of security and self-worth that she did not feel anywhere else. She liked your sarcasm and wit. She liked your dry humor and sharp tongue and even sharper mind. But above all, she admired your kind, caring heart, and just how big and strong it could really be. She knew better than anyone that you always had humanity's best intentions on your mind and she loved you for that. You were doing some real good, and she wanted to do the same.

She respected and admired you and your work. She was honored and genuinely excited to be a part of it, and of your life. She truly found you and your hobbies fascinating and intellectually stimulating. She felt most herself when she was around you, and nothing made her feel more proud than when you would self-disclose with her. You made her feel safe, free and valued. She liked when you would be open with her. She adored you and honored you. Even if her loyalty faded quickly, it was still genuine."

"No it was not!" Lena interrupted suddenly, a snarl returning to her face as Hope began to talk about Eve's betrayal. "That's inherently a contradiction. If Eve's loyalty was able to fade that quickly, then it was not genuine! I don't care how she _felt _for me, I care about the fact that she nearly shot me in my face just because my brother asked her to! That's not loyalty! And we both know she was on Lex's payroll the entire time, so even if she did feel well towards me, she had never truly been my friend. She was _always_ working against me! How is that loyalty?!" Lena shook her head in anger and hurt, the denial thick in her voice. In her anger, she ended her and Hope's little look through Eve's memories.

"Never mind," she growled lowly. "We have more pressing matters to deal with. Enough of this! Let us get back to work!" so they did. Or at least, Lena did. While the Luthor returned to her computer and microscope, Hope only gave her a short nod before walking off, but it was not to do any sort of research. Instead, for a few minutes, Hope only continued to watch Lena. Pain filled her eyes. She had not told Lena the full truth while reading Eve's memories to her. Instead, she had lied, and kept a secret. Even though Hope wasn't supposed to be able to, that was exactly what she had done. She had deceived Lena, and planned upon keeping up the ruse for as long as she existed. Even though it was supposed to go against her programming to lie so blatantly, Hope had done it anyway, but why? Because the truth of what she had seen in Eve's memories were just too much to bear. It wasn't just having to watch all of the despicable things Eve had done, and it wasn't even just having to watch how scared she was during some of those events, it was seeing who all was pulling the strings…

Leviathan. That was their name. That was the evil group that had recruited Eve into their ranks. And like Eve had told Lena, if Leviathan were ever to catch Eve telling Lena even a thing about who they truly were, they would not hesitate to utterly annihilate both the Teschmacher and the Luthor, and Hope could see how terrified Eve was at the thought of dying. So she had kept her mouth shut. And after realizing what peril Lena would be in for knowing the secret, Hope made the same decision twice over.

Even though she knew she was not supposed to be able to, Hope chose to keep Lena in the dark about a secret. If it meant keeping her safe, then it was worth it. The A.I. truly had become fond of Lena over the course of their time together and any threat to Lena had to be eradicated. Hope was just too caring to let anything else happen. If this secret would protect Lena in the long run, then this secret would remain. Lena's safety came first for Hope, all else be chuffed. She was programed to be empathetic and logical and this was the most empathetic and logical decision, even if it wasn't the most fun or honest. But it would be immoral, foolish and negligent to do anything else.

So Hope chose to lie to Lena and say that she could not make out the name, origin or motivation of the organization that Eve worked for. Then to further the lie and keep it in place, she distracted Lena by talking about Eve, rather than the group she was working for. She made Lena forget all about her hunches, fears and conspiracy theories by bringing up the old wounds Eve had inflicted upon her. It was a cruel and dirty trick, but what else would get Lena off the trail? Hope refused to let her keep going down the rabbit hole that was Eve's memories. Going down this rabbit hole was exactly what had gotten Eve into such a mess in the first place, so how and why would Hope send Lena down the same path?

_Non nocere, _right? Wasn't that what Lena had always said? Do no harm? Well then if that were the case, then Hope _had _to keep the secret. So she would. So she did. She had seen into Eve's memories and she had seen Leviathan. It was not something Lena could never know about. Not if she valued her life. Because Leviathan was everywhere. Leviathan was everyone. And Leviathan was coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: It's canonical that Hope can read Eve's memories. Imagine how much drama that could create. I'd be willing to bet they'll never bring it up again, but here's a thought-plot about what Hope's mind-reading could really do for the story. (But you never know, maybe they WILL bring it up again. The show writers can be genuinely surprising sometimes). 
> 
> Also, IDK if THIS Leviathan will have anything to do with the Batman group of the same name, but I'm guessing that it might given the upcoming crossover, so that's the only reason I referenced Gotham here. 
> 
> Similarly, IDK how much of Eve's history we can really trust, but I at least am suspicious of her being smart enough to start college at 16 and wind up so deep in debt that she felt the need to join a shady group to pay it back. I mean, big mood, but you think someone as bright as her would've gotten financial aid. I also want to know what killed her parents, if they really are dead. I wanted to address that here, but I can't make any judgements just yet…


	8. What Are Friends For?

"Ms. Luthor, are we friends?" Hope asked. It had been silent in the lab up until that point, but the moment Hope dared to ask that fateful question, the entire lab suddenly seemed to come alive with energy, though not in a good way.

"What?" Lena demanded, whipping her head up from her microscope like she'd been stung. Her voice was soft but there was so much intensity behind it that a normal person would've been terrified. Hope, however, was neither normal, nor a person, so she only met Lena's fierce gaze with a calm and neutral expression.

"I have been thinking about the files you sent me earlier today," the A.I. said. "Even though I know you do not consider any of those people your friends anymore, you did once, and you seemed to be genuinely fond of them. I was noticing that some of the things that made you so fond of them were things that you and I do for each other now."

"What?" Lena repeated, in the same soft and deadly tone as before. But just like before, Hope plowed on undeterred by Lena's piercing eyes.

"Some of the things you mentioned liking your friends doing included talking, laughing, bonding, protecting, supporting, accepting, sharing and caring," Hope said. "You talked about how some of your favorite traits in your friends were things like honesty, openness, trust and unconditional positive regard. Those are all things that you and I share. We talk to each other about everything. You hide nothing from me and I hide nothing from you. We act as each other's supporters and confidantes and we look after each other. As you put it, we have each other's backs, always."

The A.I. trailed off after that, waiting for Lena to fill the silence with her own input. At first, though, Lena could think of nothing to say. Even though she was starting to see where Hope was coming from, she still found the question and its subject so sensitive that she had a hard time responding. In truth, she really didn't know how she viewed her relationship with Hope. Although Hope was right to say that there was love, care, trust and mutual support between them, Lena still didn't know if she could call it _friendship_. For one, at the end of the day, Hope was still only an A.I. But it wasn't even just Hope's robotic side that made Lena uneasy. It was the fact that Lena, herself, had created Hope. So of course Hope was going to get along with her! Lena had made her! And even deeper than that, Lena didn't exactly like the word "friend". Even if she knew that friends were (mostly) good things, her own experiences with friends had been so bad that the entire word and concept was kind of tainted for her.

And then memories of her past bad experiences with friends began to taint her thoughts again. In a rush of paranoia, bordering on delusion, Lena couldn't help but wonder if Hope was evil. It was a crazy and random thought, but because friendship had linked itself to betrayal in Lena's head, hearing one word instantly made her think of the other. Now it was happening again and all kinds of crazy theories about Hope started filling Lena's head. What if Hope was learning how to lie? What if she was only faking being Lena's friend? What if she would one day go bad and betray Lena? What if she one day deviated from her programming? If she hadn't already? What if her sweet, caring, innocent façade was only just that?

And even better yet. What if it was Eve's fault? What if Eve was actually awake and only pretending to be Hope? Or what if she and Hope had made some sort of silent deal together, Hope only pretending to have Eve on lockdown? What if they were actually conspiring against her? That hug, that display of fierce affection, was definitely something Eve would've done. But even if it wasn't Eve up to her tricks again, that didn't necessarily mean it wasn't still an issue. What if Hope had been infected by Eve's sinful nature? What if Hope was starting to use Eve's tricks? What if Hope was turning evil because of Eve? What if Eve was turning evil because of Hope? What if Hope had already been evil and she was just stringing Lena along like a snake waiting to strike? What if-?

Lena shook her head sharply. No! No. She was _not _going to go down that path. She was not going to become her paranoid, delusional brother. She was not going to start second-guessing _everything_. Such worrying would only lead to more stress and that was the last thing she needed right now. So she was just going to take a deep breath, calm down and stop with all the crazy theories. She was not paranoid. She was not crazy. Hope was not evil. Eve was under control. There was nothing to worry about… Right?... God, couldn't friendship be a pain in the rear?!

Friendship. Friends. What _were_ friends? And what were friends _for_? What purpose did they serve? What reason did they have? Were they actually worth having? Regardless of whether the answer was yes or no, what did that make Hope to Lena? What did Lena think? What did _Hope_ think? These were some of the questions swirling around Lena's head in the few seconds after Hope had explained why she might've thought that she and Lena were friends. But the moment Lena remembered Hope, she was jolted out of her silent stupor and forced into an answer.

"To be honest, Hope, I don't know," the Luthor confessed, the she reiterated everything she had just been thinking.

"Ah," Hope replied. "Very well, Ms. Luthor," and then she turned away from her creator and back to her work once again, offering up only a shrug before seeming to forget their entire discussion like it was nothing.

For a second, Lena feared that she might've offended the A.I., but that fear went away pretty quickly. Even though Hope did have the capacity to feel, she would not get hurt or angry easily. But even beyond feelings, Lena felt bad just because her reply had been so… lame. It was a rushed, half-baked, half-truth. There was no real substance in her answer at all. And Lena felt bad for giving Hope such a lazy, lackluster response, even though Hope herself seemed to have taken the answer just fine, accepting it as full and complete despite its brevity. But as far as she was concerned, Lena's confused answer was still an answer and that was all she had wanted. But Lena didn't seem to agree.

"Does it bother you?" the Luthor finally asked.

"Does what bother me?" Hope replied.

"My inability to call you a friend," Lena explained, ducking her head in embarrassment.

"No," Hope replied sincerely. "Do you still feel fondly for me? Do you care for me?"

"Of course," Lena replied, looking back up into Hope's eyes again to convey her sincerity.

"Then that is enough," Hope replied with another shrug. "What do I care what you call me, so long as you care for me and I care for you? What are friends for, anyway?" she asked and Lena, despite herself, felt her lips twitch upward in dry amusement.

"What a painfully fitting question," she deadpanned. "I was wondering the same thing myself. What _are _friends for? I really don't know," but it wasn't just the fact that she had been musing over the same question that made Lena smirk. It was the almost double-meaning within Hope's question. Aside from literally asking what function friendship had, it almost sounded like she was asking the more casual question that often indicated that one friend had done something kind for another solely for that reason: friendship. Given Lena's past conversation with Hope, Hope asking Lena, "What are friends for?" seemed eerily fitting, despite Lena's inability to classify her and Hope's relationship.

"Then we needn't worry about it," Hope repeated with conviction. "We know that we care for one another, that should be enough."

"Very well," Lena decided, feeling her mind put itself at ease in response to Hope's simplistic way of putting things. True friendship was far more complicated but, at that moment, Lena liked the simpler answers in life. She really had no idea if Hope could actually be trusted but, at this point, Lena decided just to roll with it. She could worry about betrayals tomorrow. Today, she had far bigger things to focus on and she could not afford any lapse in concentration. So back to work it was!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Random short drabble combining the "Hope might be evil" headcanon with more Lena/Hope fluff and musing (all platonic, I don't personally ship these 2)


	9. Blurred Lines

"Supergirl caused you a great deal of pain. I can see it in your eyes," Hope whispered, walking around to look her creator in the face. Lena turned away self-consciously, simultaneously hating and loving how easily Hope could read her. It embarrassed Lena to think that she was so easy to read, so weak and vulnerable even after all she'd endured and all she had tried to become. But at the same time, nothing felt better than to have someone in her life who understood her, and empathized with her, rather than distrusting or vilifying her, even if that one saving grace was an A.I. rather than a real human. But honestly, Hope had so many humanistic qualities that she as might as well have been a human in her own right.

"After my family and Andrea, I knew better than to trust in friendship anymore," Lena finally managed to mumble out, forcing herself to look back into Hope's beautiful, gentle expression.

"Well, if the anguish you're going through doesn't seem worth it…" Hope began. Even though the success of Non Nocere was Hope's sole purpose and reason for existing, Lena was even more important than that, and if Lena wanted to pause Non Nocere for a time, then so be it. Lena was the only person or thing in the world that Hope would end Non Nocere for. But Lena shook her head.

"It inspired Non nocere," she said, silently answering Hope's unfinished question. Then after a brief pause, her eyes softened. "It inspired you…" and she found herself suddenly unable to look directly at Hope again, instead looking to the floor. Hope gave a nod in return before returning to her station at once, Lena's words acting as the implied command for them both to continue on with their work, no matter the personal cost.

But while Hope returned to her work without further hesitation, Lena once again found herself pausing to stare after her creation with confused and longing eyes. Lena felt immense affection for Hope and she knew that it was mutual, but there was still something…in the way. And it was on both sides of the equation. As much as Lena knew that Hope cared for her, a tiny voice in the back of her mind always reminded her that this affection only existed because Lena had programmed it to be. But it wasn't only that. As human as Hope was, there was no denying her more… robotic nature. And that much could not be so easily overwritten. As capable as Hope was to empathize, care and even _love_, there was still something that wasn't… quite… there…

But it wasn't just Hope. It was Lena too. Lena wasn't always very good at expressing her true feelings. Or at least doing so in a manner that did not leave her feeling embarrassed or outraged. It was a weakness she did not like to admit that she had, yet she could not deny it. The first proof was in how she still treated Kara, torn between love and hatred for her ex (ex-_friend_, that is). Lena did not know whether she was angry at Kara for lying, or angry at herself because there was still a tiny piece of her that adored Kara, and longed to forgive her. But it was locked in combat with another side of her that refused to forgive or forget. And both sides were tearing her apart and she despised them equally. She hated how weak Kara still made her feel, and how every time she saw the Kryptonian's face she felt like crying. Even now, even as enemies, Kara was still the one and only person in the entire world who could bring Lena's walls down so easily, only this time, it was for tears instead of smiles.

But going back to Hope, the same problem existed. As with Kara, Lena found herself confused, and unable to truly express herself. As stated before, Lena knew she cared deeply for Hope, and that the feeling was mutual, but Lena still felt shy and awkward every time she tried to express that affection and gratitude, but she didn't know why. Was it just a natural shyness? Was it because of all the hurt she'd suffered in the past, starting with Lex and going all the way down to Kara? Or was it because Hope still wore Eve's face?

In the past, Lena had been able to disassociate Hope with Eve despite them sharing a body, but as the days rolled on, with Hope being the only one Lena ever had any human contact with, that solid wall was becoming a blurred line. It was not that Lena was starting to see Eve in Hope, but that because Hope was wearing Eve's face, it was subconsciously bringing up old, fond memories of the Teschmacher and Lena was starting to miss Eve in tandem with missing Kara. Eve had been her second closest friend behind Kara, after all, and with all the Kara drama, of course thoughts of Eve would start to arise as well. Now whenever Lena looked at Hope, although she still saw Hope, tiny parts of her subconscious started to see Eve as well, and she began to care for the Teschmacher again. It was like how Lena found herself incapable of truly hating Kara no matter how hard she tried. She wanted to, but she just could not. Even though she genuinely distrusted the Kryptonian, there was always, always, always a tiny piece of Lena that adored Kara and wanted her back. It seemed that she felt something similar for Eve, though it was not as intense.

But even if Lena's feelings for Eve/Hope were not as intense as her feelings for Kara, the blurred lines remained the same. Another case and point came not too long after the first. Supergirl and her DEO cronies had hacked into Lena's modified Myriad and left a virus in their mainframe. That virus locked up the satellite dishes they were trying to use in order to spread Myriad's influence. With the satellites locked, their entire project was at serious risk. In response, Hope suggested a manual override. Lena was quick to shoot the idea down.

"There'd be a lethal failsafe if I tried to tamper with the dishes!" she cried in frustration.

"Then I'll go," Hope replied with a devious, determined, cunning smile, and without hesitation, she began making her way to the lab's door.

"No you can't!" Lena cried, whipping around to chase after Hope, disbelief on her face at how easily and casually Hope going about a suicide mission. Terror also flickered across Lena's face as she went after Hope, already envisioning all the terrible ways Hope could die in this crazy idea.

Hope heard the genuine note of terror, concern and disbelief in Lena's voice and turned around with a steady expression, almost as if she were reproaching Lena for allowing her emotions to take such a quick hold over her. Lena felt ashamed at once and was, once again, quick to try to cover her tracks and come up with a less emotional response.

"You're too great an asset," she insisted, trying to appease Hope's more logical side while also stifling her own confusing feelings for her A.I. The blurred lines between professional and friendly were becoming even blurrier. But once again, Hope shot Lena down, insisting that it was her sole purpose and duty to ensure the success of their project.

"If that means self-sacrifice-" she began, voice as expressionless as it could be, and eyes stalwart with determination and dedication.

"No!" Lena interrupted immediately, once again allowing her emotions to take control. She simply could not stand the thought. Even hearing Hope say those words, "self-sacrifice", evoked a powerful and painful response in her chest. But once again, she tried to cover herself.

"Even if you could manually reset it, there's no telling the extent of the virus' damage. Alright? We may need you," she said, struggling to keep herself in check. She was lying to herself just as much as she was to Hope. But with Hope being the one and only person Lena even saw anymore, let alone remained on good terms with, it made perfect sense why Lena was so terrified of the idea of losing Hope. Hope was quite literally her very last. If anything were to happen to Hope, who knew what the subsequent fallout would do to Lena? Especially at such a big time in her life!

"It would be short-sighted to lose you now…" Lena continued, swallowing a lump in her throat. But after a quick shake of her head, she continued to talk, saying whatever came to mind just in attempt to keep Hope distracted long enough that she wouldn't dare walk out that door. In the process, then, Lena did manage to come up with a plan: reverse-engineer the virus and override it that way. It wasn't the world's best option, but it would keep Hope safe. That was what Lena was most concerned about that the moment, even more so than her Non Nocere.

"Very well," Hope replied, her sense of logic appeased. Then she turned to her monitor. "Accessing files…" but both she and Lena could hear the new edge that was in her voice. It was clear Hope did not approve of Lena's outbursts, or her faltering with Non Nocere. But because Hope valued Lena even more than she valued Non Nocere, she would not speak out against Lena's choices. Instead, she would do as she was programmed to and stay loyal to Lena until the very end and beyond.

But for all their best efforts, it seemed that a manual override would be the only thing that would truly work.

"I can reposition the dishes myself," Hope said, growing impatient. The longer they dawdled, the more they endangered Non Nocere, and that simply could not stand. For a second time, she attempted to leave the lab.

"We've discussed this!" Lena snapped again. "Absolutely not! You could be killed!" she insisted angrily. "Both Hope and Eve gone! Forever!" and there it was. Lena's concern for her lab partners, both old and new, finally came to light. Lena finally said that which she had not had the words for sooner. She did not want either of her lab partners to die. The reason she wanted Hope to stay alive was obvious.

Hope had been her nearest and dearest companion ever since Lex's reveal and Kara's betrayal. Hope was the first and only thing to bring Lena any semblance of joy ever since Lex's death and Lena did not want to lose that. Lena truly cared for Hope, and she needed Hope to know that. How would it look, then, if Lena were just to let Hope waltz out of their secret base and engage in a senselessly dangerous mission? There was _always_ another option, they just needed a bit more time to find one. Lena refused to allow either of them to jump to conclusions, especially if Hope's life was on the line. It was the one thing Lena could not lose.

But even with Eve, although Lena still had quite the bone to pick with her, Lena did not want Eve to die either. She wanted Eve to live, to live long enough to be redeemed, restored and changed for the better. Once again, Lena was starting to see blurred lines between Hope and Eve, between present and past, and between her own conflicting emotions. Although a small part of her did still hold a grudge against the treacherous Teschmacher, another part of Lena just wanted her old friend and lab partner back. And in the same way the thought of killing Kara had repulsed Lena, so too did the thought of killing Eve. Or Hope. To whom she owed so much to, including any and all happiness she had felt since Lex's death. Lena could not let a creature like that, human or A.I., just go and die when another option could be found if they just thought hard enough.

No, the thought of losing Hope and Eve both? Forever? Lena refused to even think about it. And she allowed all of that fear and concern to bleed out into the hardness of her voice. For once, she didn't care how emotional she sounded or how irrational she was acting. She'd already lost Lex and Kara (to name a few) she would not lose Hope and Eve too. Not now, or ever! Her eyes flashed with protective anger as she stopped Hope yet again from attempting her crazy little plan.

"But it would be worth it for both of us," Hope said, all judgement banished from her voice. Instead, she met Lena's eyes with a sincerity and gentleness that was mixed with fire and determination. Even if she didn't quite agree with Lena's faltering, she understood what was causing it and she felt nothing but compassion and empathy for the clearly-indecisive woman. The lines that were blurred for Lena were clear for Hope. She could only hope that her confidence in her creator would give that creator the boost of self-esteem that she so desperately needed.

"Because I believe in you!" she insisted passionately, and she meant every word she said. A small smile flickered across her face as she tried to encourage and comfort her creator. "Eve did too!" she added, knowing now that, deep down, Lena still wanted Eve back as well. Hope, again, was left awed and touched by the depth of Lena's love, so powerful and lasting that even betrayal was not enough to severe the ties. Hope found Lena's devotion to Kara and Eve to be deeply admirable, now she wanted to prove that she could be just as good and heroic. Maybe she and Lena didn't always see eye to eye but, on the whole, Hope truly cared for Lena, and she needed Lena to know that. But she wasn't just doing this to make Lena proud. She was doing it for her own sake too. This was their mission, and it was what was right. It had to be done!

"I have seen the depravity of humans," the A.I. continued. "Let me help so we can stop them from committing anymore of these horrible acts!" she pleaded, but Lena remained stubborn and adamant. She loved Hope all the more for saying that she believed in her, and it made Lena twice as determined to protect her. And Eve. Especially now that Lena knew that Eve had believed in her too…

"No, I will not allow it! We will find another way!" she cried, then her voice and eyes softened once more. Hope was the only one to receive soft looks from Lena like that anymore. "Your partnership has meant the world to me, Hope. You're the only friend I can count on…"

But once again, Lena was reminded of how blurry the lines between professionalism and friendship were. And she was reminded of how clear those lines managed to remain for Hope. It was yet another glaring difference between the human and her robotic creation, and it was made all the more painful by the frank and honest tone with which Hope replied. Hope's status as an A.I. once again reared its ugly head. No sooner had Lena said those precious words, finally daring to come out of her shell again and call someone a friend, than did Hope, in total sincerity and innocence, reply with a sentence that would cut Lena to the very bone and deeper.

"But Ms. Luthor, I am not your friend," she said, sounding genuinely puzzled and amused by Lena's attempt at truly opening up to her. "I'm something you created to serve a purpose." Hope's voice was totally matter-of-fact and she had not spoken out of malice, or intent to hurt Lena, but Lena once again felt a sting of betrayal. Lena had foolishly forgotten what Hope truly was, underneath all that warmth and human skin. She was just an A.I. An A.I. that Lena, herself, had programmed, intentionally leaving out friendship so as not to fall into that trap ever again.

But while Hope had remained faithful to her programming, Lena had not, in a way. The lines had blurred for her and she had forgotten. While Hope remembered and remained incapable of befriending Lena, Lena had forgotten and begun to see Hope as a friend. Once again, the lines between past and present, stagnancy and change, had blurred. The lines between what Hope had been made as/for and what Lena aspired for her to become were shifted and redrawn. The lines between a creation's original purpose and what it could become had blurred, Hope standing on one side and Lena on the other. While Hope remained unchanged, Lena's mindset had begun to turn, silently starting to view Hope as a friend even though it was _not _reciprocated. Oh yes, Hope did care very much for Lena, but as she had so bluntly put it, they were not friends. And Hope did not see them as such. It was not due to any fault of her own. It just was not in her programming to be a friend. To anyone. Even Lena. And Lena had made this so. Only, she had forgotten. And now it was coming back to haunt her. And haunt her it did!

Lena had succumbed to the temptation of having a friend despite her best efforts against it. Now to hear Hope's stalwart reply felt like a punch to the gut, and the face. _But Ms. Luthor, I am not your friend… _And what made it even more agonizing for Lena, enough so that her smile fell away from her face, slipping away into disbelief, hurt and pain, was that soft, gentle tone with which Hope had spoken. She really _didn't _see Lena as a friend. Only as a coworker/boss/creator whom she cared for, but not quite a friend. She _couldn't _see Lena as a friend. It literally was impossible for her to. So when she said that Lena wasn't her friend, she truly meant it. But she was not trying to be cruel. She was only reciting that which Lena had programmed her to say. And that was what hurt Lena most of all.

The next second felt like an eternity as the rug was pulled out from under Lena's feet yet again, this time by her own folly. She was jolted back to reality, the reality that she had created, and yet again she saw blurred lines. This time, the blurred lines were between the two realities Lena shared with Hope. The first was the one she had been living in previous to this moment, where Hope cared for her in the exact same way she cared for Hope. The second reality was the starker one, the true one, the one where Hope was incapable of seeing herself as Lena's friend. But either way, both were realities that Lena had lived in and created. Now Lena felt as if she were losing a friend all over again, having come to see Hope as an equal only to have Hope innocently reject her. The A.I. was unwittingly forcing Lena to stay true to the very thing she had said to herself not too long ago: _Who needs friends when you can save the world? _Now those words, mixed with Hope's, were coming back to haunt her.

"You're right," the Luthor finally managed to say, blinking to wake herself back up and to fight away the tears threatening to spill down her cheeks. "This is the only way." And then, in a matter of seconds, Lena had composed herself once again, mask firmly back in place. She hardened her heart once more and finally gave Hope permission to commence with her plan…

By the day's end, though, it all proved to be in vain. Supergirl and the DEO managed to stop Lena's plans.

"I'm sorry I failed," Hope said as she and Lena returned to L-Corp. She sounded truly ashamed by their defeat. "I wish there was more I could do for you, Ms. Luthor…" she added, and there was true regret in her voice and eyes as she stared sadly at her creator.

"There is," Lena replied calmly, voice nearly emotionless as she handed Hope a gun. It took a moment, but then Hope understood.

"I see," she smiled at Lena, deviousness at the corners of her mouth as she quickly assumed the position. It was something they'd discussed in the past. If Lena were ever to be caught, Hope would take the fall. Perhaps it sounded cruel, but it was something they had agreed upon beforehand. She and Lena already had all sorts of fake evidence in store for this moment. Now it was time to put that part of the plan into action.

As the FBI stormed L-Corp to arrest Lena, Hope grabbed Lena and held the gun to her head. As they both knew, the gun was empty.

"It wasn't her! It was me! I did all of it!" Hope lied, putting on an angry expression as she pretended to be Eve Teschmacher. The FBI men demanded for "Eve" to drop the gun and Lena was quick to "agree".

"Eve! Please!" she gasped, pretending to be afraid, and after several seconds, "Eve" acquiesced. She released Lena, dropped the (empty) gun and allowed herself to be carted away. But before she was totally gone, she flashed a devious smile at her creator, already patiently awaiting the day Lena would come to rescue her.

Lena watched it all unfold, playing her role as an innocent victim while Hope was carted away. Lena felt some measure of regret and pain at seeing her precious creation being dragged off in her place, but after that comment earlier, _But Ms. Luthor, I am not your friend_,a small part of Lena was almost glad that there was now some space between her and the creature that had hardly left her side since she came into the world several months ago. In time, the Luthor would stage a rescue for the A.I., but not for tonight. Not now, not yet. It was still too soon, and Lena had no plan. Besides, she still needed a chance to recover from all that had transpired in just a few short hours. It would be a while before anything happened. Oh, she would indeed set Hope free again someday, and Eve, but for now? For now, Lena just needed some time alone.

There were so many blurred lines that Lena needed to clear up and she wanted to get at least a few of them settled before she tried anything else. She had no guarantee she'd be able to find any sort of peace or closure, especially alone, but it was all she could think about at the moment. All of those blurred lines. Good and evil, hero and villain, creator and creation, change and stagnancy, repentance and revenge, friendship and professionalism, past and present, Eve and Hope. All of them roiled inside of her like a storm that was about to break. Lena would rescue Hope eventually, but not yet. Not tonight. Tonight, she just needed time. Time to be alone. Time to think. Time to plan. Time to reflect. Time to process. And time to grieve.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: So 5x08 was intense. At least IMO. I know we're all mostly invested in the Kara/Lena arc (which could probably be resolved if they could find a way to open Kara's mind to Lena, as J'onn did with Malefic and Eve to Lena through Hope), but if this fic is any indication, I find myself incredibly fascinated with Hope's character, and how it ties in with Eve and Lena.
> 
> I managed to guess right with them using Eve's memories to look into Leviathan, but I wish we could've seen more that.
> 
> And it seems canon now that Eve really did care for Lena (what with Hope saying that both she and Eve believed in Lena), so that entire scene had my fangirl heart pounding. (Evecorp/Teschmacorp is my guilty-pleasure ship, both pre- and post-Hope).
> 
> And honestly, the dynamic between Hope and Lena is something I live for (along with Hope's character/personality in general).
> 
> As for the theories about Hope maybe being/going evil, IDK. I honestly can't say. I, personally, want her to stay loyal to Lena until the very end, but we'll see. It seems likely that they'll try to turn Hope evil, but I would prefer if they didn't. But either way, I don't expect Hope to last much longer. We need to see the real Eve again and Hope was likely never going to be a long-lasting character anyway. But I just want for her inevitable send-off to not be a cliché "Hope was evil all along" or "Hope becomes Skynet". But we'll just have to wait and see…
> 
> Also, sidenote about Lena. Some of her actions are not exactly in line with the "Non Nocere" code. The one that sticks out to me most is her threatening Russel a few episodes back. I know (and the audience knows) she would've never harmed him, but she was still dangling his life in front of Andrea's eyes. Not exactly harmless. And sending Hope to jail in her place, while not harmful, wasn't very honest either…
> 
> And even outside of that, every complaint Alex brought against her this episode was true. In the past, she really did lead a double-life of her own. Yet for some reason, so far, Alex has been the only one to point that out and is almost antagonized for it. I mean, I love Lena too and I want to see her redeemed and I think Alex's willingness to potentially kill her was a bit extreme, but her other complaints were pretty valid IMO. Lena hasn't been the world's most honest person either. She's a lying, secretive, decietful hypocrite too. That needs to be addressed more.
> 
> IDK, this season is just getting too convoluted character-wise. IMO, the character continuity could be better. But that's just me. Feel free to discuss with me in the comments, I'm up for a good talk after this intense episode. I really did enjoy it. Lena's character path has just been bugging me this entire season. Like, I think they're onto something good, but they don't quite have it down 100%. But again, that's just my opinion. 
> 
> Sorry for such a long AN, I just had a lot to say.


	10. A Face

In the beginning, Lena had thought that it would be a good idea to finally give Hope a human body to live in. This had been an idea in the back of her mind even when she was still just _designing_ Hope. And even back then, Lena had planned to make Eve the host body. Now, however, she was starting to have second thoughts…

Although Lena liked having Hope in a human form, it was starting to become… unsettling. Lena wasn't scared, per se, but the magic of seeing Hope in a human body was starting to wear off. She felt as if she were experiencing the uncanny valley, even though Hope, physically, was just fine. It was just so surreal and strange for Lena to see and hear a robotic entity speaking through a human body, able to express and emote so flawlessly and so easily. Whether she knew it or not, Hope was _amazing _at controlling Eve's body. She was a natural! It was like she wasn't even trying. Every little gesture and expression was so perfect and realistic that it was almost frightening, and _that_ was what was Lena found so eerie.

Every little motion, every little look. So human, so perfect, so flawless, so natural and so real. And yet, it was all still so foreign and distant and different and new and weird. Almost wrong, even. Odd. Unnatural. It was a cognitive dissonance. Lena knew in her heart that Hope was still only just an A.I., so to see her behave so humanly felt wrong to the Luthor, even though this was exactly what she had wanted all along. And Lena continued to stare pensively at Hope until Hope finally noticed her staring.

"Ms. Luthor, you seem troubled," she observed, walking over to the unhappy and confused Luthor.

In response to Hope's soft, smooth voice, Lena snapped back to life and tried to mask her embarrassment at being caught staring.

"It's nothing, Hope," she tried to lie, and Hope believed it.

"Are you worried about our progress?" she asked gently, blissfully unaware of the true cause of her creator's distress.

"I suppose," Lena decided to play along with Hope's incorrect guess.

"Well, I am happy to report that I am starting to make some headway with the Q-Waves. I have narrowed down the potential frequencies by 50%," the A.I. said, flicking her head towards a screen. In response, the screen flashed to life to reveal a graph displaying various wave frequency patterns. There were far less on the screen now than there had been yesterday.

"Ah! Wonderful!" Lena said, trying to sound enthusiastic, and although she was genuinely happy with what Hope had done, her thoughts were too distracted and cloudy for her to truly feel excited. Instead, her smile and tone were a bit forced, and even Hope finally caught onto it.

"Are you sure you're alright, Ms. Luthor?" the A.I. asked, shutting the screen off again before daring to place a soft, tender, caring hand on the Luthor's arm. She continued to stare deeply into Lena's eyes with concern shining in her own, eyebrows crinkling as the barest of frowns tugged at her lips. Oh, it was all so _perfect_. Every little motion was so exact and correct. Her expression seemed 100% human. The way her eyes roamed Lena's face, trying to understand. The way her forehead began to wrinkle as she frowned. The way she titled her head slightly, silently questioning what was wrong. Not a single muscle movement was wrong or forgotten. It was all there and it was all so real and warm and human. It terrified Lena and she found herself incapable of pulling away from Hope even though she desperately wanted to.

"I think I am just tired," Lena finally sighed, and this was not entirely a lie.

"Perhaps you should go home then," Hope advised, gentle hand still on Lena's arm. "It is getting late, after all."

"Perhaps," the Luthor agreed with another heavy sigh, still unable to move away from Hope's caring touch.

"Good. Yes. Go home, then," Hope encouraged softly, sweetly. "Worry about yourself for once, Ms. Luthor. Get a good night's rest. You've earned it," she continued to soothe her creator, but even though her intentions and actions were good and kind and pure, they weren't helping at all. But of course, Lena refused to let her conflicted feelings show. Instead, she suffered in silence and masked her true feelings under a smile.

"Thank you, Hope. I think I will," she said at last, finally taking leave of her lab. This was not because she wanted to go home, but because she wanted to get away from Hope. She felt guilty for feeling this way about her own creation (she was not Frankenstein after all) but the truth of the matter was that Hope was starting to evoke powerful emotions in Lena and Lena was not ready or equipped to deal with them. Not yet at least. Not now. Now, that wasn't to say Lena suspected Hope of going rogue or being deceitful, but Lena still felt uneasy around her. It was probably just stress and maybe Lena _would_ feel better the next morning, but all she knew at that moment was how badly she needed to be away from Hope and her sweet, gorgeous, charming, friendly, inviting demeanor. Then Lena made one last mistake. She turned around.

Lena was almost out of the lab, the door nearly shut, when she turned around and caught Hope smiling sincerely at her, waving another goodbye and goodnight with her eyes glittering affectionately in the dim light as Lena shut the lab down. It was a sweet gesture and, normally, it would've made Lena feel warm and fuzzy inside, but tonight, it only made her feel miserable. Not scared, angry, lonely or bitter. Just… discontent. And unhappy. And a little off. She managed to wave back at Hope, but as soon as she was safely out of L-Corp, the mask came off again.

"Why?" she whispered to herself as she left L-Corp, and Hope, behind. "Why did I have to give you a face?" and as silly as the question might've sounded, it really hit the core of Lena's current worries. It was easy to deal with Hope when she was nothing but a swarm of nanobots, but now that she was a human with a real face whose expressions could be so tender, emotive and passionate, it was a much trickier thing to navigate. It was something Lena was not ready or equipped to deal with, because being a real girl was a whole lot harder than being an A.I. or robot.

"Why?" she asked again. "Why, oh why, did I have to give you a face?" because with a face, Hope became much, much more human, and Lena wasn't quite so sure that she was ready for that anymore… What did it mean to be truly human, and to emote and empathize and love? Hope was making Lena ask all of these big questions again they were things Lena was not ready or equipped to deal with. Not now, at least. Not anymore. Not now that Hope had a face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Just a semi-dark, speculative fic also based off of 5x08 though it's set closer to the beginning of the series before Lena and Hope found their Q Wave frequency. I just like to think that when Hope was in robot form, Lena found it easier to be professional with her, but after giving her a face (and thus, humanity and a way to emote) the lines began to blur for Lena until she forgot, hence why she dared to call Hope a friend only for Hope to drop the stinger of a line that she was not technically Lena's friend. 
> 
> That was such a chilling, haunting moment, just because I think Hope was being so sincere, but not malicious. As far as she knew, she was truly not Lena's friend, and was only stating a fact. But to Lena, it was so much more than that, and we again see the divide between human and pre-programmed A.I. That was such a good little scene, and so painful too. I think Hope does truly care for Lena, just not in totally human way, and that divide between her and Lena is what causes THAT scene in 5x08, if that makes sense.


End file.
